Mary H.K. Choi Quotes
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I love how British people call Asian people 'oriental' unless they're talking about Indian people, who get to be called Asian.
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My sweet spot as a writer and, especially, as an essayist is sub-1500 words.
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'Emergency Contact' is about the anxiousness that is inherent in meat space interactions.
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I find texting to be kind of a safe space.
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I cannot quantify the physics of friendships and do not know exactly how much intense pressure can be applied before these glittery, brittle bonds break.
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I love New York, but sometimes New York is so mean to you.
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Jockeying for a popularity position has been a valorized teen tradition since the notion of a discrete teen stage of life was invented.
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Pedicures are disgraceful.
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Reading aloud to other people is wonderful - if you have people who will suffer it.
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I do not care for musicals. In fact, I hate them.
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I love my mother a not-normal amount.
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'Avatar' is staggering. It's seismic. Evolutionarily speaking, it is cladogenesis in a thunderclap.
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I roll my eyes at the grandstanding blowhards who have 'fixed' themselves, but I keep up with the gizmos and apps that track people's various rhythms. I'm no lifelogger or body-hacker, but I'm curious, and I want to be in-tune enough to know what's really the matter so I can level up and be at my most awesome.
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There is so much focus on being self-sufficient, and it makes it very difficult to ask for things. I've been crippled by this notion of high-functioning self-sufficiency. And I see it a lot in younger girls. Asking for help brings people closer in a way that I suspected but didn't actually put into practice.
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Never post food on your Instagram. Nobody cares, and only old people do it.
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From the first time I harangued my mother into buying me a pair of platform sandals at the irascible and persistent age of 11, I've worn heels.
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Join a Bikram-flow-yoga, Flywheel, or Pilates class so you can find spiritual oneness amid grunting socialite moms. Do whatever you want. Just, please, for the love of God, stop talking about it.
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Bieber has taste and pull, which is as important to making quality pop as actual talent.
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Learning to ride a bike in a public park means anyone can see you.
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Never post anything personal to your Facebook wall. Or anyone else's, for that matter. Only snitches and teachers look at Facebook.
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There's a really generous readership with YA.
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Your mom is the first person you fall in love with, so it's loaded forever and carries all this baggage. There's almost always a communication barrier in place. In my case it's a language and cultural barrier, but other times, it's because your mother's love is conditional or because you're fundamentally different.
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The notion of this 'emergency contact' is, Do you have someone who is holding you down? Do you know where to go if you're feeling bad? I keep likening it to assigning yourself a godparent of your choosing.
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Texting is incredibly anxiety-laden, but I know people who will have a full-blown panic attack if you call them. I'm one of those nightmare humans where the little mailbox has an ellipsis on it because I have 1000 unread emails. So texting is the most immediate yet least anxious of all the incredibly anxious ways that we talk to each other.